Blog

TX-based VALID Systems has begun taking orders on its “AIO350,” adding
to its product line of check cashing services. Designed to meet the
needs of the convenience store and retail sectors with ease of use, the
“AIO350” combines a check scanner with the “VeriFone VX570” terminal and
has the smallest footprint in VALIDâs entire product line. Options
include VALIDâs guarantee or non-guarantee risk management programs,
Check 21 or non-Check 21, cash drawer, ATM and card load payout options.
VALID Systems offers automated check cashing and verification solutions
for banks, financial services companies and retailers. The Companyâs
internet-based decisioning and identification system is deployed across
its product line for PC-based application, all-in-one terminals, and
VALID-enabled ATMs.

The nonprofit consortium that promotes, protects and standardizes Linux
by hosting technical and legal workgroups, events and online resources
has launched a new affinity credit card. The new “Linux Foundation Visa
Platinum” will generate $50 for every activated card as well as a
percentage of every purchase to go directly towards providing community
technical events and travel grants for open source community members in
order to accelerate Linux innovation. The new card is the result of a
partnership with CardPartner and is issued through UMB Bank.
The new Linux card is only available to U.S. residents but will expand
in the coming months. In 2007 the “Linux Fund VISA” was relaunched by
U.S. Bank in 2007. The card was formerly issued by MBNA for The Linux
Fund. (CF Library 8/22/07)

A fully integrated, customizable customer rewards and loyalty solution
has been launched to drive up bank deposits. Jack Henry & Associates and
Saylent Technologies have teamed to offer the program which enables
banks to offer high-interest checking, cash-back, and merchandise
incentives based on customer relationships and account activity. “BIG
Rewards” is offered in a hosted ASP environment managed by Jack Henry
Banking and supported with a series of promotional materials that are
provided to banks free-of-charge. Also, “BIG Rewards” utilizes Saylent’s
“Account360” solution as its software platform.
Saylent provides consulting and optimization services to help banks
segment and analyze their customers and design the most effective
loyalty and rewards program for targeted segments.

Trustwave will be providing PCI DSS compliance validation services for
the Alipay online payment gateway. Providing Alipay with its
“TrustKeeper” on-demand compliance management service, Trustwave will
insure access the necessary automated tools to support on-going
compliance. Offering on-demand data security and payment card industry
compliance management solutions, Trustwave will also perform an external
penetration test to identify any network vulnerabilities and exploitable
security flaws that could serve as an entrance point for a malicious
attack. This will help Alipay determine steps needed to secure and
remediate any threats to transaction security on their payment gateway.

Network Solutions confirms it is investigating a security breach
that may affected 573,928 credit and debit cardholders who made
purchases on Web sites hosted by the company between March 12th and June
8th. The Company says it identified unauthorized code on servers
supporting some of its E-Commerce merchantsâ websites, however no
servers supporting networksolutions.com were affected. The unauthorized
code may have been used to transfer data on certain transactions for
approximately 4,343 of our more than 10,000 merchant websites to servers
outside the company. On July 13th, Network Solutions were informed by
its outside forensic experts that the data being transferred may have
included credit card information. The Company says it has no reports or
other reasons to believe that any credit card account information has
been misused.

Wells Fargo has made available its latest online bill pay
feature allowing customers to make âjust in timeâ online bill payments
to merchants. Helping customers avoid missing payments or making late
payments, the Wells Fargo solution integrates customersâ bill pay data
with optional online tools, such as the “My Spending Report” online
budgeting tool and the “vSafe” archiving service. The service also
presents bills online for nearly 460 merchants and lenders; offers
online and mobile bill pay alerts for more control over their bills; and
allows customers to schedule payments with mobile banking. Wells Fargo
is targeting the 75% of consumers who initiated expedited payments last
year, a figure expected to rise in the next five years according to
Javelin Strategy & Research. Wells Fargo financial services provides consumer banking solutions through its more than 10,000 stores and 12,000 ATMs.

Visa announced that its President, Hans Morris, will be stepping down and a streamlined executive management team has been formed. Morris joined Visa in September 2007 and played a key role in planning the 2008 IPO. In the new structure, Visa’s global sales, client service, marketing, product development and innovation functions will be consolidated under COO John Partridge. CEO/Chairman Joe Saunders says Morris will remain with the company until the end of the year in a different capacity, helping to ensure a seamless transition to the new structure. Prior to Visa, Morris was CFO of Citi Markets & Banking, a post he assumed in November 2002. Citi Markets & Banking encompasses the global capital markets, investment banking, corporate banking and corporate transaction services businesses. His Citi responsibilities included managing a multibillion-dollar annual budget and a staff of 14,000 in more than 100 countries. During his career with Citi he held numerous leadership positions, including Vice Chairman, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Client Management at the Investment Banking division of Salomon Smith Barney. (CF Library 7/26/07)

Three of the major regional rail transit operators in Germany are now
using Hypercom’s “Artema Modular” unattended payment terminals with
GPRS. The Module accept both debit and credit cards and collectively
speed ticketing in more than 370 trains for over 200 million commuters
per year. The installation was recently completed at the key transit
hubs, for which Hypercom teamed with leading system integrators Atron
Electronic and ICA Traffic. “Artema Modular” was first introduced at the
end of 2005 and is currently deployed in Europe, the Middle East, Asia
Pacific and North America. Hypercom payment technology delivers a full
suite of high security, end-to-end electronic payment products and
services across more than 100 countries.

FL-based Vital Cash Flow is unveiling its rebate program to help
restaurants with card fees. The new program rebates 50% of the fees a
restaurant pays to process Visa and MasterCard transactions and places
them into a co-op fund account. The account funds can then be used for
such Vital Cash Flow marketing services as search engine optimization,
blogs, social media marketing, public relations, media relations, online
audio & video marketing, and even promotional landing pages. In order to
qualify for the program, restaurants have to process a minimum of
$16,000 in Visa & MasterCard transactions monthly. Participating
restaurants receive a $250 co-op marketing fund bonus for every business
referred to join the program. Vital Cash Flow specializes in Business
Financing, Hotel Fundraising Programs, Co-op Marketing & PR Dollars for
Restaurants, and Cash Flow Management Solutions.

SHAZAM electronic funds transfer services will be testing
Acculynkâs “PaySecure” Internet PIN debit service through a pilot
program. The program will allow SHAZAM financial institutions to
participate in testing Internet PIN debit technology and gauge consumer
acceptance of PIN-protected online debit card purchases. The “PaySecure”
software allows consumers to enter their PIN on a graphical PIN-pad at
the merchant checkout when conducting debit card purchases. The security
solution requires no additional hardware devices, passwords, enrollment,
or redirection to another website for payment. The SHAZAM EFT network
was founded in 1976 and provides EFT services to more than 1,500
community financial institutions in 30 states while Acculynk secures
online transactions with a suite of software-only services.

AirPlus International corporate travel payment solutions has released
its July edition of “The WireÃ¢ÂÂ¦from AirPlus.” This Month’s features
corporate travel professionals weighing cost versus other criteria in
the selection of preferred suppliers, 76% of whom found cost and savings
criteria gained importance over the last six months. Amongst the 147
travel management professionals surveyed, cost ranked highest in
importance with the selection of airline, hotel and rental car supplier.
Cost ranked much lower in importance for selecting travel management
companies (TMCs) and payment solutions where data reporting was valued
as most important. “The WireÃ¢ÂÂ¦from AirPlus” is a monthly report on the
pulse of the industry and its relevant topics while AirPlus
International provides savings to over 32,000 customers worldwide
through its business travel payment solutions.

A new technology is hitting the payments market that enables bank customers to deposit their personal or business checks using a cell phone camera. The technology supports the payments industry standards for “RDC” and is available on iPhone, as well as selected BlackBerry and Windows Mobile handsets. San Diego-based Mitek Systems signed an OEM agreement with Fiserv for Mitek’s “Mobile Deposit” application. When depositing a check, the consumer initiates a mobile banking session, keys in the deposit amount and snaps a photo of the front and back of the check. The software captures the check image and prepares it for
transmission to the bank. Before transmitting the check image, Mitek’s
“IMagePROVE” technology automatically corrects image distortions and skewing to confirm it meets accepted “Check 21” image quality standards.